WASHINGTON — The Canadiens ended their five-game winless streak with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Washington Capitals Thursday night and they also kept Alex Ovechkin from scoring his 700th career NHL goal.
Ovechkin did score once in the first period, giving him 699, but the Canadiens shut the Great 8 out after that, while getting goals two goals from Ben Chiarot — including the OT winner — along with singles from Shea Weber and Brendan Gallagher. Lars Eller and Tom Wilson scored the other goals for the Capitals.
Wilson scored with 21 seconds left in the third period to send the game into OT.
“It seems like every year he looks the same, year after year,” the Canadiens’ Nate Thompson said after the morning skate about the 34-year-old Ovechkin, who now has 41 goals this season. “He plays the same way. He’s just one of those anomalies that just goes out there and does it every year. We just need to make sure that he doesn’t get it (goal No. 700) tonight.”
The Canadiens could have been up 2-0 five minutes into the game, but Max Domi and Paul Byron were both stopped by Capitals goalie Braden Holtby on breakaways. Domi has gone nine games without a goal and has only one in the last 23.
Ovechkin opened the scoring at 7:29 of the first period off a faceoff that Nicklas Backstrom won against Canadiens rookie Nick Suzuki. Ovechkin bolted into the faceoff circle from his left-wing spot, picked up the puck, moved to his right and beat Carey Price with a quick shot. It was the 21st career goal Ovechkin has scored against Price.
Weber tied it 1-1 at 17:43 of the first period on a point blast for his 14th goal of the season. Eller made it 2-1 for the Capitals at 17:03 of the second period when he got the puck behind the net, skated untouched past Suzuki and Jeff Petry, cut to the front of the net and beat Price from in close. It was the 15th goal of the season for the former Canadien.
Gallagher tied it 2-2 at 18:37 of the second period, banging in a loose puck from in front of the Capitals net for his 20th goal of the season. Gallagher sat out Tuesday night’s 4-3 loss to the Red Wings in Detroit with a lower-body injury.
Chiarot put the Habs up 3-2 only 30 seconds into the third period before Wilson sent it to overtime.
The Canadiens’ Artturi Lehkonen was made a healthy scratch, missing his first game in two seasons. Lehkonen has gone nine games without a goal and has only one in the last 13. Victor Mete didn’t play because of a foot injury suffered in Tuesday’s loss in Detroit and Xavier Ouellet suffered a concussion three minutes into the game after being checked hard into the boards and didn’t return.
The Canadiens will be back in action Saturday when they visit the Ottawa Senators (7 p.m., SNE, SN1, CITY, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).
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